Even cemeteries aren't sacrosanct in the relentless drive to extract fossil fuels.

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Far beneath the final resting places of many Americans, including war veterans, lies a wealth of natural gas trapped in shale rock formations, which could be tapped using the controversial hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, technique. But as companies seek drilling rights to gas beneath graveyards, an outraged public calls into question the ethics behind drilling into hallowed ground, reported the AP.

"You know what it is, it's emotional," Jim Scharville told the AP. Scharville is the administrator of Poland Township, a community in eastern Ohio where Campbell Development LLC sought the right to extract gas from beneath a 122-year-old cemetery.

"A lot of people don't want any type of drilling," Scharville said. "There's something about disturbing the sanctuary of a cemetery. We're not talking about dinosaurs now and creatures that roamed the earth millions of years ago. We're talking about loved ones who have died, people we knew."

The National Cemetery Association (NCA), which administers veteran's cemeteries, has begun to avoid areas where a soldier's final rest might be disturbed by drills.